Christmastide, day 10
Sunday before Theophany; Forefeast of Theophany
Saints commemorated
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Prophet Malachi
Malachi (fifth century before Christ) is the last of the twelve Minor Prophets, and his short book stands last of all the prophets in the Christian ordering of the Old Testament — the seal of prophecy before the four centuries of silence that ended only with John the Forerunner. His name means "my messenger" or "my angel," and both the Greek tradition and the Lives of the Prophets remember him as a young man of such beauty and such gentleness of life that the people called him an angel; the hymns of his feast play throughout on the name. He prophesied in Judah after the return from Babylon, when the second Temple stood again but its worship had grown careless; against the corrupt priests and the faithless people he set the vision of a "pure offering" to be made among all nations, of the "messenger of the covenant" and the Forerunner who would come "in the spirit and power of Elijah," and of the "Sun of Righteousness" rising "with healing in his wings." He is kept on January 3, within the Forefeast of the Theophany.
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Holy Martyr Gordius of Caesarea (4th c.)
Gordius (†c. 320) was a soldier-martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia, a centurion of the Roman army who, when the persecution of the Christians broke out, laid down his sword and withdrew into the wilderness to purify himself by fasting and prayer. Judging at last that the hour had come, he came down of his own accord into the crowded amphitheatre of his city on a day of pagan games, and, standing in the midst of the assembled people, cried aloud that he was a Christian and would not deny his Lord. After the questioning of the magistrate and the torments that followed, he was beheaded. His passion is remembered above all because Basil the Great, archbishop of the same Caesarea, preached a celebrated homily in his honour on his feast, before a congregation many of whom still remembered the martyr — one of the great pieces of early Christian martyr-preaching, and the chief source for his life. He is kept on January 3, within the Forefeast of the Theophany.
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Our Holy Mother Genevieve of Paris (ca. 502)
Genevieve (c. 422 – c. 512) is the great ascetic patroness of Paris, a consecrated virgin of the fifth-century Gallo-Roman Church who is venerated among the pre-Schism saints of the West received into Orthodox commemoration. Born at Nanterre and set apart for God in childhood by the passing bishop Germanus of Auxerre, she took the veil in her mid-teens and gave her long life to prayer, fasting, vigil, and unwearied charity. When Attila and the Huns bore down on Paris in 451, she persuaded the terrified citizens not to flee but to fast and pray, and the horde turned aside from the city; during a later blockade she led a convoy up the Seine to bring back grain and saved the people from famine. Revered by the Frankish kings Childeric and Clovis, devoted to the memory of the martyr Denis, and famed for prophecy and healing, she reposed at a great age about the year 512 and was buried on the hill that still bears her name. She is commemorated on January 3, within the Forefeast of the Theophany.
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Ephraim of Nea Makri
Ephraim is a fifteenth-century Greek monk of Mount Amomon above the modern Nea Makri in Attica, held to have been tortured to death by Turkish raiders on 5 May 1426. Nothing whatever was known of him until 1950, when the nun Makaria Desipri, excavating the ruins of the abandoned Monastery of the Annunciation on the hill, uncovered a burial she took — on the strength of a series of dreams and visions she reported — to be his, and from which the whole of his transmitted biography derives. A very large popular veneration grew up around the shrine within a generation; the Church of Greece entered him in its calendar in 1998 and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2011. His commemoration is therefore canonically established and liturgically kept, while the historical foundation of his life rests on private revelation and not on any document, and the Church's own recognition of him was cautious and late.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Hywyn, companion of St. Cadfan in Cornwall (6th C)
- St. Finlugh (Finlag) (6th C)
- St. Fintan (6th C)
- SS Fugatius and Damian (2nd C)
- St. Wenog
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 6
Let us all sing the praises of Gordius, the soldier unconquered in his contest and the crowned victor unvanquished in his torments — the great star that shone forth in very truth out of the East, the divine adornment of the Martyrs of Christ.
Kontakion — Tone 3
Filled full with the wisdom that is above all wisdom and divine, O most great Malachi, being by nature a prophet, thou didst show forth to all men Him who is from on high, the very Wisdom of God, come to dwell here below; wherefore we honour thee, keeping in faith thy sacred memory.
Kontakion — Tone 6
Let us all sing the praises of Gordius, the soldier unconquered in his contest and the crowned victor unvanquished in his torments — the great star that shone forth in very truth out of the East, the divine adornment of the Martyrs of Christ.
Kontakion — Tone 3
Filled full with the wisdom that is above all wisdom and divine, O most great Malachi, being by nature a prophet, thou didst show forth to all men Him who is from on high, the very Wisdom of God, come to dwell here below; wherefore we honour thee, keeping in faith thy sacred memory.
Sticheron
Thy head cut off by the sword, thou didst pass over manifestly from life to life, from the mortal to the immortal, from the corruptible to the incorruptible, not awaiting the death of nature but choosing of thine own will to die. O thy contests, victorious Gordius! by which, O Martyr, thou didst magnify Christ, the only compassionate One.
Sticheron
By thy life that imitated the angels thou wast shown forth on earth to be an angel, and didst fittingly gain for thyself the very name of Angel, O all-blessed Malachi, having harmoniously joined the beauty of thy soul to the beauty of thy body.
Sticheron
Thy head cut off by the sword, thou didst pass over manifestly from life to life, from the mortal to the immortal, from the corruptible to the incorruptible, not awaiting the death of nature but choosing of thine own will to die. O thy contests, victorious Gordius! by which, O Martyr, thou didst magnify Christ, the only compassionate One.
Sticheron
By thy life that imitated the angels thou wast shown forth on earth to be an angel, and didst fittingly gain for thyself the very name of Angel, O all-blessed Malachi, having harmoniously joined the beauty of thy soul to the beauty of thy body.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a venerable-martyr)
Trained in the discipline of the monks and made perfect in the contest of the martyrs, thou didst offer to Christ a twofold crown, O Ephraim: for having died to the world in the ascetic life, thou didst give thy body to torments for His name, and wast found faithful unto the end. Wherefore intercede with Him that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O mother, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to have care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Genevieve, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Gordius, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 2
As we celebrate the memory of thy prophet Malachi, O Lord, through him we entreat thee: save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a venerable-martyr)
Trained in the discipline of the monks and made perfect in the contest of the martyrs, thou didst offer to Christ a twofold crown, O Ephraim: for having died to the world in the ascetic life, thou didst give thy body to torments for His name, and wast found faithful unto the end. Wherefore intercede with Him that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O mother, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to have care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Genevieve, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Gordius, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 2
As we celebrate the memory of thy prophet Malachi, O Lord, through him we entreat thee: save our souls.
Readings
9th Matins Gospel
John 20.19-31
19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Epistle
2 Timothy 4.5-8 (Sunday before Theophany)
5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 6For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Gospel
Mark 1.1-8 (Sunday before Theophany)
1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 6And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; 7And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.